AND CALL to mind, through this divine writ, Mary. Lo! She withdrew from her family to an eastern place 16 She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent her our angel, and he appeared before her as a man in all respects. 17 She said: Lo! I seek refuge in the Beneficent One from thee, if thou art Allah-fearing. 18 (The angel) said: "I am only a Messenger from your Lord, (to announce) to you the gift of a righteous son." 19 She said: "How can I have a son, when no man has touched me, nor am I unchaste?" 20 He said: "So (it will be): Thy Lord saith, 'that is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us': It is a matter (so) decreed." 21 ۞ When she conceived him she went away to a distant place. 22 The birth pangs led her to the trunk of a date-palm tree. "Would that I had died before this," she said, "and become a thing forgotten, unremembered." 23 Thereupon [a voice] called out to her from beneath that [palm-tree]: "Grieve not! Thy Sustainer has provided a rivulet [running] beneath thee; 24 Shake also to thee the palm-trunk, and there shall come tumbling upon thee dates fresh and ripe. 25 So eat and drink thou, and cool thine eyes; and if thou beholdest the human beings anyone, say: verily I have vowed to the Compassionate a fast, so I shall not speak today to any human being. 26 Then she brought him to her people, carrying him. They said, "O Mary, you have certainly done a thing unprecedented. 27 "O sister (i.e. the like) of Harun (Aaron) [not the brother of Musa (Moses), but he was another pious man at the time of Maryam (Mary)]! Your father was not a man who used to commit adultery, nor your mother was an unchaste woman." 28 So she pointed to him. They said, "How can we speak to one who is in the cradle a child?" 29 He said, 'Lo, I am God's servant; God has given me the Book, and made me a Prophet. 30 and made me blessed wherever I may be; and He has enjoined upon me prayer and charity as long as I live, 31 "And dutiful to my mother, and made me not arrogant, unblest. 32 And peace is on me the day I was born and the day I will die and the day I am raised alive." 33 That is Jesus, the son of Mary - the word of truth about which they are in dispute. 34 It is not for Allah to take a son! Exaltations to Him! When He decrees a thing He only says: 'Be' and it is. 35 (Baby Jesus said), "Worship God who is my Lord as well as yours. This is the straight path". 36 Then groups among them differed; so ruin is for the disbelievers from the witnessing of a Great Day. 37 How sharp of hearing, how sharp of sight they will be when they come to Us. But today, these evil-doers are obviously lost in error. 38 Warn them of the woeful day when the final decree will be issued; they are neglectful and faithless. 39 We are the heirs of the earth and those living in it will all return to Us. 40